Student impaled by flying golf club at Arkansas fraternity party

REUTERSAugust 21. 2014 6:03PMLITTLE ROCK — An 18-year-old female Arkansas State University student was in critical condition at a hospital after being impaled in the neck by a golf club that broke apart in an accident at a fraternity, university and hospital officials said on Thursday.

Natalie Eaton, a first-year student, was struck at a fraternity cookout on Tuesday when a fellow undergraduate batted a tossed football with a golf club, breaking it and sending the lower portion flying 30 feet and into her neck, the university said.

Eaton, of Harrisburg, Arkansas, was treated initially at a local hospital, then flown by helicopter to a trauma center in nearby Memphis, Tennessee, it said.

The teen’s condition was listed as critical on Thursday, said Angie Golding, a spokeswoman at Regional Medical Center in Memphis.

A second student was struck by another piece of the club but was not believed to be seriously injured.